1528 – Preview and Book Launch

Alkazi Foundation’s Photobook Awardee (2017), Rohit Saha presented his graduation work that was based on Manipur from 2016-2018. Creating visibility around the 1528 individuals who lost their lives in extra-judicial killings between 1979-2012, this publication presented Rohit’s personal telling of his experiences, a combination of documents and his own images around those who have survived or lived through the disappearances of their loved ones.

The Launch was in conversation with Tanvi
Mishra, Creative Director, The Caravan; Photo Editorial, PIX.

Brief about the Publication

In August 2016, after a 16-year hunger strike protesting the
removal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), civil rights activist
and poet, Irom Sharmila broke her fast. Her drive for change began in 2000, in
response to the slaughter of ten people at a bus stand by the armed forces in a
village called Malom. This inordinate strike came to be known as Malom Massacre.

AFSPA, as it has been enforced in Manipur – often described as a ‘disturbed
state’ – allows the military to execute anyone on the mere suspicion of terrorism. It has recently been claimed that there are well over 1528
individuals who have lost their lives in such extra-judicial killings between
1979 and 2012.

With this project, my aim was to understand the nature and scale
of these fictitious clashes that are often called ‘fake encounters’, considering the landscape as
witness. By volunteering for the EEVFAM (Extra Judicial Execution Victim
Families Association Manipur) – an organisation formed by the widows of deceased – I gained insight and gathered evidence about the situation at
hand. By going through available testimonies and witness accounts, I was
able to shape my current perspective – a photobook of my personal experiences in Manipur between
2016-2018.